[Also a songwriter (and guitarist), she's working on a solo CD.] It's kind of up in the air, ... I'm having a hard time; I want to make it special. Musical theatre is my first love. My writing is sort of folk-rock. I get compared to Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell — though I'm not nearly as talented as either. Neither a straight-pop album nor a musical-theatre album seems the way to go. I want to take my music and orchestrate it in a kind of old fashioned style, and take some standards and 'popularize' them — do a true crossover. I'm working on it. |
[Also a songwriter (and guitarist), she's working on a solo CD.] It's kind of up in the air, ... I'm having a hard time; I want to make it special. Musical theatre is my first love. My writing is sort of folk-rock. I get compared to Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell though I'm not nearly as talented as either. Neither a straight-pop album nor a musical-theatre album seems the way to go. I want to take my music and orchestrate it in a kind of old fashioned style, and take some standards and 'popularize' them do a true crossover. I'm working on it. |
[For the November 2004 National AIDS benefit performance of Pippin , she played Catherine, opposite Michael Arden (] who was fantastic ... I couldn't believe that Ben Vereen remembered me by name: 'Hi, Laura!'...'Hi, Ben Vereen!' |
[Of Yugoslavian-German-Irish-Native American heritage, she was raised in Kinnelon, NJ, the daughter of Dr. Salvatore Benanti, a psychotherapist, and the former Linda Wonneberger, who's Laura's vocal coach. Younger sister Mariel is a sophomore (and psych major) at Philadelphia's St. Joseph's University.] I love her! ... She's wonderful, so bright, and so athletic the most generous person. I constantly try to be more like her. |
[Since he's in the business, Chris Barron fortunately understands the demands of his wife's career.] Even though he sings rock and roll, ... he loves musical theatre — maybe even more than I do. He loves Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein. . . |
[Since he's in the business, Chris Barron fortunately understands the demands of his wife's career.] Even though he sings rock and roll, ... he loves musical theatre maybe even more than I do. He loves Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein. . . |
Food is the most basic forum for discussing things like love and the absence of love; how we hurt ourselves and how we heal ourselves. |
I hate to sound like a Pollyanna, ... but in a way [the ordeal] was kind of a blessing. It puts things in perspective. You learn who your friends are; you realize the importance of family. I was 18 when I did Sound of Music . My life started to get very linear; I started to get tunnel vision. [The injury] opened my eyes as to how I wanted to be as a human being. |
It's a difficult subject matter, especially for a comedy. It's not everyone's cup of tea. People magazine gave it four stars; the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times hated it. We had eight days [to do each of the seven half-hour episodes], and it was filmed out of sequence. I'm proud of my work in it; I felt like I did a pretty good job. The reviews for me have been nice. I loved working with Sterling Brown and Del Pentecost. It was a great learning experience. |
Just standing next to Zoe Caldwell made me a better actress, ... He said some amazing things that I will keep with me for the rest of my life. |